A Heath Ledger directed music video has appeared online

A music video directed by the late actor Heath Ledger has finally made its way onto the internet. The six minute long video, for US rock band Modest Mouse, is for their song ‘King Rat’.

The video was unfinished at the time of Heath’s death in January 2008 but the video company he was a partner of completed it in his honour, say the BBC.

The animated video is whimsical and dark, showing whales and dolphins aboard a ship, fishing for humans in the water. It concludes with a message in white letters on a black screen: “This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit.”

Ledger conceived the theme for the ‘King Rat’ video in order to raise awareness of commercial whaling off the coast of his native Australia. Proceeds from downloading the video from iTunes will go towards the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Modest Mouse – King Rat

In an interview with VH1 in 2007, Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock spoke about how the collaboration with Ledger came about: ”Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea,” he said.

“The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it.”

The video is being released in conjunction with Modest Mouse’s new EP No-One’s First, And You’re Next, which is out in the States now.